1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus, an adapter device of the imaging apparatus, and an information processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Technical guidelines referred to as Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) has been established to formulate specifications for interconnecting digital audio visual equipment and personal computers (PCs) for the purpose of sharing data of moving images, music, and still images with each other in a home network. According to the guidelines, a digital camera, a digital versatile disk (DVD) video camera, or the like can be connected to a camera adapter device that has a server function, so that files of moving images, music, and still images recorded on a recording medium in the camera are stored in the camera adapter device. The files of the moving images, music, and the still images are reproduced by a network media player that accesses the camera adapter device via a local area network (LAN). The files of the moving images, music, and still images can be transferred from the camera adapter device to a storage terminal to be stored therein.
In a camera adapter system, when the digital camera is connected to the camera adapter device and the photographed images are transferred to and stored in the storage terminal via the LAN, a user may want to sort the images according to a person in the images. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-62868 discusses a technique for checking a face of a person included in a photographed image with a person identification reference database on a server, identifying the person automatically, and recording a name of the person in the image. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-80891 discusses a technique for sorting photographed images according to an identified person when the face-identified photographed images are transferred to a PC or the like.
However, there are concerns about security if a person identification reference database used to identify a person on an image is stored in a server (camera adapter device) and anyone can use the database.